Musings of a Born Again Christian seated in the Front Row for the First Time

Kindness. Do you have it in you? What am I saying? Do I have it in me???

Facebook. Yeah, I love it and I loathe it at the same time. In an age where accusations appear to be enough to convict someone in the eyes of the public, it’s a dangerous thing to construct a meme or snippet about a person or event, as the soft headed among us glam onto these things as if they were in fact true or factual.

If I were motivated enough, I’d bet dimes to cold dog turds to any of you, that I could snag a picture of a prominent actor, label a photograph exclaiming they were born with a tail, and post it up all over social media. I’d wager that of the quick 100,000 views, a majority would actually consider it true. That’s nutty… …But, we have to be careful we don’t fall into the trap ourselves. Trust me, it can happen. Especially when the meme we’re viewing aligns with our belief system.

That said, it has come to the point that newsfeeds on Facebook are littered with pure junk. In this case however, I ran across an article that I enjoyed reading. I enjoyed it so much, that I read it twice and forwarded a copy to my bride. She also enjoyed it.

The article outlined above is worth your time and energy. To me it embodies Christian Ethic as it were… The article outlines the basics of good behavior, approaching your other half with kindness, and couples it with the basic human decency to give your spouse the full attention they require at any given moment. Those things don’t bother me of course, but I found it fascinating that Shakespeare was quoted and the Good Book was left out entirely. Maybe that’s me just being snarky. The Bible isn’t a prerequisite for every conversation I’m sure you all agree. But I’ll state wide open that in terms of how we treat one another, and specifically how we love a spouse, there’s no better manual for the practice. But I digress…

If you take a moment to really dissect that article, it tends to be about as basic as the human existence. I mean, come on people. Have we gotten so lousy at marriage we can’t manage to pick up on our wive’s indicators of interest? We’ve devolved to being so self absorbed we can’t be kind to our husbands? Surely not. Well… Not so fast. Because I find myself falling squarely into the mold featured in this article. Chances are you may too.

I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart for 16 years. She’s a witty, attractive, loving, chaos driven, high functioning wrecking ball, and I wouldn’t have her any other way. We have two kids and they’re their own adventure. We stay busy with our community, our work, and our family. We also manage to skip giving one another our basic needs as outlined in the article. Again, while not biblical in precept, the article manages to be a really good reminder and is based on long term studies. While I’d like to think you and I could have come to these conclusions on our own, we didn’t. At least most of us haven’t. For if we had, marriages wouldn’t be failing at a 70% rate.

So while I’d like question all of you on just how well you’re doing in your marriage and that was part of the intent of my blog today, the fact is, I should pay closer attention to my own. Frankly, I’m glad for the reflection.

Read the article. Ask the questions. Apply it. Live better. Love God and one another. It is that simple if you allow it and practice it…